AGP seeks Rajnath help to trace leader

Prafulla Kumar Mahanta speaks at the news conference in Guwahati on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, June 4: The AGP today moved Union home minister Rajnath Singh for help to trace its leader Onkarmal Agarwalla, who went missing in Jharkhand on Tuesday.

AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said here that Agarwalla, also a businessman, went missing hours after he reached Sahibganj in Jharkhand from Delhi by a train at 4.40am on Tuesday.

“The family has informed us that Agarwalla boarded Brahmaputra Mail (coach no. 1, berth no. 19) from Old Delhi railway station on June 1 at 11.40pm for Sahibjang. After reaching Sahibganj railway station, he called his son Amber around 4.40am to inform him about his safe arrival. This was the last communication with him,” Mahanta said.

Agarwalla, 68, is a central committee member of the AGP, He had contested Lok Sabha polls twice from Dibrugarh and Dhubri and the Assembly poll from Hojai constituency but was never elected. A resident of Kocharibasti here, Agarwalla is the president of Purbattar Marwari Sammellan.

Agarwalla’s brother, Surinder, told this correspondent here today that they were yet to get any information on his whereabouts. “We lodged an FIR at Sahibganj police station but we have not received any information yet,” he said.

Asked if the family suspected abduction, he said, “We don’t think so because we have not received any extortion call so far.”

Mahanta said Agarwalla was carrying his mobile phone but could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. “He was reportedly in contact with Hemlal Murmu, a former Jharkhand minister and a BJP candidate from Rajmahal constituency in the recent Lok Sabha polls in Jharkhand. He had gone to Sahibjang to meet Murmu during the Lok Sabha poll,” he added.

“As his family is helpless, we have sent an urgent letter to Union home minister Rajnath Singh, Union minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju, Jharkhand chief secretary Ram Sewak Sharma and director-general of police Prabhat Kumar to find out Agarwalla,” Mahanta said.

A senior Assam police officer said neither Agarwalla’s family not Jharkhand police had informed them about the incident so far.

“We suspect that he was trapped by someone but cannot say much without any information from Jharkhand police,” the official said.